Buck Harvey: Popovich yelled at Howard, for others

Dwight Howard thought a television cameraman was filming him while he was naked. So Howard stuck out his rear end farther.

“I’ve got a wide shot for you,” he said, and he giggled.

Howard then asked a Lakers staffer — three times — if he could have his Halloween candy. He had made his free throws that night, hadn’t he?

Howard then turned on some music and danced in front of his locker.

All of this happened in November in Portland. After the Lakers had lost their second game in two tries to start the season. With Mike Brown just three games away from being fired.

Maybe Gregg Popovich was unaware of those details. Maybe he wasn’t thinking about his friend, Brown, on Sunday. Maybe Popovich was simply coaching when he bristled at Howard.

The end result was the same no matter.

Popovich was speaking for Brown and Kobe Bryant, for the Magic and the Lakers, and for everyone else.

Spurs assistants who were in the All-Star Game huddle in Houston say the incident has been overblown. Pop was just being Pop, they said.

According to Stephen A. Smith of ESPN on Wednesday, Popovich drew up a play for Howard during a timeout, then realized Howard was still in his warm-ups and paying attention to everyone in the Toyota Center except him.

So Popovich “dropped a few F-bombs” at Howard, according to Smith, and “almost went ballistic.”

Tim Duncan and Tony Parker had heard it all before, as had the Spurs assistants who were there. “Nothing new,” said one on staff.

Still, this was new, because this was an All-Star Game where coaches are usually nothing more than observers. Besides, Popovich, in similar settings, has rarely treated other stars as he does his own.

So what happened this time? Popovich could accept the craziness of All-Star weekend, but someone refusing to listen was likely something else entirely.

Other factors could have also been in play, such as Brown. He was fired, with Howard at his side, after only five games this season.

“Mike’s not just a good friend,” Popovich said at the time. “But he’s a hell of a coach, and it certainly is sad when there really wasn’t a chance to put it together there. It’s quite premature, it would seem, to any logical and objective observer.”

Brown hadn’t impressed, but five games do qualify as premature. And while Popovich and his peers understand the nature of their profession — that their lives are often upended for subjective factors that have little to do with their coaching ability — this firing crossed the line.

Howard wasn’t the reason, exactly. He was coming off surgery while adapting to a new franchise; he also had 33 points in that Portland loss.

Still, his silly and unprofessional act had already played out in Orlando, and he represents the frustrating reality of the NBA. Talent is worshipped, no matter how immature it is, which is why the Lakers will be in line with others this summer for Howard.

They also can’t be as brazenly honest with Howard as Popovich was, because Howard might then opt to go somewhere else. Instead, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has to hope someone who already earns nearly $20 million this season wants to stay.

“Dwight is our future,” Kupchak said Wednesday.

Howard might have been a different person had he come to, say, San Antonio. Duncan would have taught him a few things, and Popovich would have said more.

This is certain: Howard wouldn’t have talked much in San Antonio, as he has this season, about not getting “enough touches.”

As it is, Howard remains a manchild. And at one point Sunday, when Howard did what he does, Popovich did what he does.